Tell us about your entanglement experience?

[scratch]

I have not been entangled in line, but I dive with scubapro twinjet fins which have openings through the web near the toes. A few months back while diving in low vis in puget sound at edmonds underwater park, I managed to hook one of the fin openings over a piece of rebar sticking out of some concrete block. I could not figure out why my foot would not move and the angle and vis prevented me from getting a good look at the problem. I tried to free myself by kicking for about 30 seconds but no luck. Then I calmed down and tried to visualize how I could be stuck and my foot came right off the rebar and I had a bit of a chuckle. After telling my wife this story she ran out and bought new fins but I like the twinjets (stiffer fins give me leg cramps)so I'm just trying to be more careful around pokey bits of metal now.

steve

 

[ShakaZulu]

First time deploying an SMB, my octo got caught in the line, and up I went. Thank fully my dive buddies grabbed me and held me down until I was able to untangle the octo....Oops.

SoCal diving results in a lot of Kelp fights They become real fun if your regs get caught, thank god for buddies.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I did a good one 6 months ago. I was snorkeling with my young son and dove down to inspect a brand new fishing lure with a treble hook that was firmly caught on a rope. I did not breath up in preparation for the dive since the depth was only like 8-12 feet or something. I knew it would take me only a moment to free the lure and come up.

Well I screwed up and ended up with the trebble hook through my cloth glove and pretty well into my finger. This hurt, but it wasn't that big of a deal, just another dumb move on my part.

I tried to free my finger but the hook was in pretty far, so I decided it would be best to saw a section of the rope out that the lure was in and then bring the mess to the surface where I could more leisurly deal with it (and breath).

I cut through one end of the rope, but the other end was still attached to the bottom in a big bundled mess. It had taken too long and I realized I was getting low on my breath hold time and probably was not going to be able to cut through the other end of the rope in time.

So then I decided that I should work on the glove and I turned it completely inside out except for the one finger of the glove which was pieced by the hook, I worked a little on this and realized my time was up. Just ripped my hand back and tore the trebble hook through my finger and went up, leaving the glove still attached to the bottom via the hook and the rope.

The whole incident was probably over in 60 seconds.. Sometimes stupid hurts.

 

[seaducer]

I have had the typical small entanglements, none of which were worth noting at the time.

One funny episode that happened at the aquarium I volunteer at though:

We dive an AGA FFM for shows, but the metal and electrical work around the enclosure makes it impossible to use a wireless setup, so the AGA is connected via wires in what looks like rope. This wire is long enough that we can dive anywhere inside the 760,000 gallon Ocean Realm, to give you an idea, it is pretty long.

During one of the morning shows, the diver on AGA started to get tangled up, but was at the same time distracted by one of the turtles, before he knew it his legs were hopelessly tangled up, he was effectively hogtied and sinking to the bottom of the exhibit. The other diver was up to this point oblivious, checking out the kids, and hadn't seen this yet. Meanwhile the guest services person on the other side of the glass was starting to panic, so the AGA diver had to calm her down while trying to either get untangled or get his buddies attention.

In the end he was tied up for only a few minutes, it made for a riveting show I am sure, and everyone got off ok.

Just goes to show even in confined water you can get entangeled to the point you can't free yourself...

 

[Jim Kerr]

I've been tangled (snagged) in kelp but that's really no big deal, it snaps away real easy. If you dive in Ca sooner or later it's going to happen. There was a time when I was diving in Mexico that I got entangled in some fishing line but to my surprise it snapped away pretty easy too. I did have a knife with me if I needd it though.

 

[Ice9]

Interesting thread. Our police dive team recently offered an entanglement class in a local pool. Most of the class participants dive with the Institute of Maritime History and spend a lot of time diving in the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. We also maintain the U-1105 by putting up the buoy and clearing monofiliment off the U-boat.

The class consisted of blacking out our masks and following lines laid out in the pool. The primary line took you under a weighted net through two tubes that required you to doff your BCD and push it in front of you and several other challenging obstacles. It was a great class and reinforced a calm, analytical approach to diving in these situations.

Hahah! That course looked amazing! I need to be in the next one!

 

[Jim Baldwin]

I've gotten tangled only once. Not much of a story to read. Actually on my third dive with a drysuit (totally uncomfortable), and scared to death. Sucked half of the tank. Simply tangled on the line set by the DIR folks I dove with. Got untangled myself, but it was embarrassing explaining why my SAC rate was so pitiful. The two guys saw me, but allowed me to muck up the water and got untangled myself. Errors - night dive with new skill (drysuit), task loading with new BP/W set up (which did not have a knife or cutting tool on it), and holding a lamp in the hand I am not used too. I broke every rule in the book.

Please tell us your story, how you did or didn't s**t your pants or drysuit, and what could have been done better.

The first time was doing a search and recovery for a drowning victim in a local pond at night. Two guys had been putting out a gill net. This net was about 30 feet long and had two inch squares. I managed to get in this mess in zero vis. Luckily I was able to surface and my buddy was able to get me untangled.

The second was on a dive in backwater of the Ouachita River in early January looking for a shotgun that a duck hunter had lost while standing in a treetop in about 20 feet of water. On my first try my fin managed to find some netting just as I surfaced and grabbed the side of the boat.

I had to submerge and unhook this mess before I could get back on the boat and warm up. After the third attempt I did find the shotgun.

Since those to episodes I have been tangle free maybe I'm just leading a charmed life or better yet just learned a few things from my youth.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I had an interesting entanglement today. Cheng and I were diving a wall with Uncle Pug and his son-in-law. There's a lot of fishing activity right now ... with ling cod season open and all. So we're swimming along this wall which is just covered with nudibranchs. I've got my face about a foot from the wall ... because some of the most interesting nudis are small and difficult to see ... and not really paying as much attention to where I was going as I should have been. We were at about 80 feet. All of a sudden I felt a tug on my leg. I turned to look and felt another tug on my back. I looked up and saw a steel leader above me. Obviously, I'd just swam into the stuff ... which tends to hang in coils when it's not got a load on it. Decided not to even try disentangling myself ... signaled Cheng. She came over, looked me over, gave me a stop signal, and started unwinding. I'd managed to wrap steel leader around my tank valve, wing, leg, and fin. Underwater macrame. Took her a good two minutes to unwind me. After she was done I shined my light on the coils and up ... there sure was a lot of the stuff, hanging in loose coils. Thought about trying to pull it down so it wouldn't endanger the next folks who dived there ... but then realized it'd probably just come down on top of me ... so we swam around it and proceeded on our way.

Went to the ferry next ... it's about a half-mile away, sitting in about 70 feet of water. There were several boats fishing around it ... but we waited till most of 'em wandered off, then tied our flag off to the WDFW buoy and went down the buoy line. There was more fishing gear hanging off that wreck than I've seen in most department stores ... but after the first dive everybody was more careful to avoid it.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[ArcticDiver]

Yep, that steel stuff is really tough. Unfortunately it is really hard to see; especially in low vis.

Great Cheng was able to bail you out; a true friend.

 

[ArcticDiver]

I've been entangled a few times but was always able to just unwind myself, or cut myself out; except for once.

I was in a class where we were doing things like trim, buoyancy, demonstrating "proper" gear configuratin, learning different kicks, etc. At the time I was diving with a console that had my spg, compass, and stuff in it. He was adament that the proper place for the spg was on a D ring on my left hip. He was also adament that I move my console there Right Now! I must be in proper configuration. I could not wait until I had changed my gear to get rid of the console.

Next dive the thing hanging down snagged a line and tangled tight enough I could not get out of it. Another student came over and untangled me.

I went back to the "improper" configuration until I could change my gear.